Pitch and Rhythm Perception and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Acute Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Music perception deficits are common following acquired brain injury due to stroke, epilepsy surgeries, and aneurysmal clipping. Few studies have examined these deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI), resulting in an under-diagnosis in this population. We aimed to (1) compare TBI patients to controls on pitch and rhythm perception during the acute phase; (2) determine whether pitch and rhythm perception disorders co-occur; (3) examine lateralization of injury in the context of pitch and rhythm perception; and (4) determine the relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and pitch and rhythm perception. Music perception was examined using the Scale and Rhythm tests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, in association with CT scans to identify lesion laterality. Verbal short-term memory was examined using Digit Span Forward. TBI patients had greater impairment than controls, with 43% demonstrating deficits in pitch perception, and 40% in rhythm perception. Deficits were greater with right hemisphere damage than left. Pitch and rhythm deficits co-occurred 31% of the time, suggesting partly dissociable networks. There was a dissociation between performance on verbal STM and pitch and rhythm perception 39 to 42% of the time (respectively), with most individuals (92%) demonstrating intact verbal STM, with impaired pitch or rhythm perception. The clinical implications of music perception deficits following TBI are discussed.

Auditory attention measured by EEG in neurological populations: systematic review of literature and meta-analysis

“…In persons with TBI, perception of deviances in rhythmic sequences can be impaired as a result of the alteration in brain function due to the trauma caused by an external force 76 . Greater impairment in rhythmic perception is seen for patients with right hemisphere damage compared to the left hemisphere 76 . However, lesion location can highly impact possible processing difficulties of sounds.…”

The Potential Role of m6A in the Regulation of TBI-Induced BGA Dysfunction

“…Therefore, the abnormal expression of m 6 A-related proteins may lead to the development of various neurological diseases, such as PD [ 145 , 146 , 147 ], AD [ 148 , 149 , 150 , 151 , 152 ], MS [ 153 ], tumours [ 154 , 155 , 156 ], epilepsy [ 157 ], and neuropsychiatric disorders [ 158 ]. TBI, as one of the major diseases of CNS, often causes memory problems in humans [ 159 ]. Several CNS traumas, both in vitro and in vivo experimental systems [ 147 , 160 , 161 , 162 , 163 , 164 ], have demonstrated that m 6 A modification also plays important roles in the aetiology and pathogenesis of brain injuries.…”

Pitch Discrimination Testing in Patients with a Voice Disorder

“…We did not perform the ROC analyses separately for the MTVD and neurological voice disorder groups and for the two musical background due to the small sample size of each subgroup. It may also be the case that the current NeAP protocol was not associated with optimal prediction ability given the number of tone pairs used (20) and the range of PD threshold. Smaller thresholds would probably be more likely to differentiate the groups with better sensitivity and/or specificity.…”

“…Given that the auditory cortex shows normal responses to pitch in this condition, the suggestion has been made that the impairments are due to reduced white matter functional connections between the auditory and inferior frontal cortices [19]. Traumatic brain injury is also known to affect pitch perception ability due to damages of the underlying pitch processing regions [20].…”